Fences
by NiceNoob
Summary: A normal teens life gets changed, by the most least expected thing... A non-human. Threats are everywhere, and the most unlikely bond is formed.


Fences. Chapter 1

It was a hot day in Johannesburg, South Africa with 97 degrees supporting that fact. After a long day at school, Oscar didn't feel like boarding the cramped, stuffy, and air conditioning-free bus that his school called 'proper' transportation. He'd much rather take the shortcut then have to deal with the overconfident kids at his school who believed they ruled the Earth and all of it's inhabitants.

Will was the average 14 year old. He was skinny enough to avoid getting picked on but he was skinny in the scrawny way so he didn't have the muscle to make him stand out. It's not like he wanted to stand out anyway. Will was a very shy person. He much rather preferred his small group of close knit friends to life of barely knowing hundreds of other kids. His circle of friends was enough to make him know that his life was okay.

The shortcut was a three mile long stretch of plain dirt. Oscar didn't know why it wasn't used often but never put much thought into why either. All he really cared about is how it led straight from school to his neighborhood.

Compared to the rest of South Africa, the neighborhood was pretty decent. Will lived in a house with two stories, a small attic, and a room to himself. Down the hall was his sisters room... His GOD awful sister. She was 16 and she just learned how to drive, so apparently that made her queen of the house. Sometimes that really got on his nerves.  
>But now I'm getting off track.<p>

The strange thing about this shortcut was the quarter of the dirt path was about a half a mile away District 9's Fence.  
>That's right, the District 9 where the prawns lived.<br>It took a lot of guts to walk down the shortcut, but Oscar walked it with his friends a few times... It wasn't even that bad. Sure you would hear some gunshots far of in the distance in the direction of the fence, but that was a very very rare occurrence.  
>Until Today.<p>

Oscar never told the shortcut to his parents or his sister, In reality he was committing a crime and would have MNU straight on his ass if he ever told. This was serious shit, getting so close to the border... But what the hell, it was the fastest way to get home.  
>The high school day leading up to this sucked. He had gotten picked on (as usual) and had a fine time with a kid who "accidentally" spilled his lunch all over his dress shorts and the floor. So hungry and in low spirits, he began to take the shortcut home.<p>

Everything was going fine the first five minutes. Walking down the narrow dirt path across a field was somewhat relaxing and it gave Oscar some time to clear his thoughts, the open sky and field reminded him of a dream long forgotten, but for now he was just tired and very hungry. He was walking down in a slow pace when suddenly, a sharp crack of a gun lulled by the long distance was heard. Oscar looked to his right, the fences height looked about as tall as fingernail from Oscars perspective, being waved back and forth from the mirage of the heat, but never the less... Oscar quickened his pace. *crack-crack* Two more shots were heard. Oscar looked over again, trying to squint his eyes as if trying to catch a glimpse of something, but to no avail.

"God-Dammit" Oscar muttered to himself. This was strange, and he needed to get home as soon as possible. He was in a slow jog now, backpack bouncing up and down with every foot fall. He should have never used this blasted short-cut; he was almost past the quarter mile mark when he heard a horrendous screech in the direction of the fence. He stopped dead in his tracks. That's was definitely a prawn. He thought to himself with fear He had seen plenty of videos on the internet of prawn screeches; the MNU recruitment ads on the internet were absolutely insane with various videos of "hardcore officers" telling "you" to help take control of the alien inhabited areas. Thank god for the skip button on YouTube. Something struck Oscar odd about this screech though, it was more high-pitched and it lasted a shorter amount of time.  
>By this time Oscar was in a full run. Backpack bouncing up and down rapidly on his back, he was focused to get home as soon as possible, or away from the fence for that matter. Look behind him the quarter mile of dirt was getting smaller by the second. He stopped, panting and deprived of oxygen. He was past the stretch now and he was on the Main road.<p>

~~~~

Oscar speed walked the rest of the way home. His house was located in the suburbs of Johannesburg. Where the rich and the poor always were close together. Poverty was all Around them. But that's the way things were.

He entered his house. "Hey Honey," his mom said.

"Hey mom."

"How was school today?"

"Good." He looked at his mom. She didn't believe him, he had come from school many times just to retreat to his room for the night. Only coming down for a bite to eat. "I'm going to my room now." A pause. "Okay mom…?"

She let a small sigh out, "Okay honey." Oscar was on his way up the stairs when is mother yelled up after him, "your father will be late from work again!"

Oscar rolled his eyes, His mother and father didn't have the best relationship, Oscar thought that due to stress, work, bills and other factors of life was contributing to a slow, tedious split between his parents. That was just his opinion though.

He was in the second story hall now. To get to his room, Oscar had to walk past to his sisters room. His sister (who was actually somewhat popular) was blasting music as loud as she could throughout her room. Today is was Enter the Ninja By: Die Antwoord. He shook his head, his sister was out of the house most of the time, either with friends browsing clothing, or driving everywhere because she was "sophisticated" and "independent." It was all bullshit to Oscar, he was uninterested in his sisters endeavors, but as long as she kept out of his business he could let it slide.

Oscar opened the door to his room and walked inside, there were various pieces of clothing on the floor and bed that Oscar neglected to pick up, a nightstand next to his bed, a dresser and a old wood desk that held is (aging) Macbook Pro and his books.

Oscar sat down in his swivel chair and stared at the Macbook, He had done the same old routine every. single. day. Come home, retreat to the second floor, barricade himself into his room, and come down about an hour later to treat himself to some food. Life was very uneventful, but that streak of a dull lifestyle had been thoroughly smashed to bits earlier that afternoon (at least for the time being.)

Oscar logged in on the ancient Macbook, Proceeding to blow some crumbs out of the keyboard. Once the computer fully booted up, he clicked on the browser to enter the google homepage. He entered the keywords "prawn screening." Results instantly popped up on the open window. Mostly youtube videos and links to videos of prawns rioting and fighting, but it didn't get him anywhere. The prawn screech that he heard was high pitched and almost sounded desperate in a sense, the next thing he goggled was "High pitch prawn screech"

The results were now much more limited and short. The found links were no longer youtube videos or links of prawn rioting behaviors, but now pages of prawn biology and social structure had worked its way out of the woodwork. Oscar clicked on the first link titled "Age Difference Effects on the Prawn Multi-Emotion Call" Most of the terminology in the link Interested Oscar, He didn't know that prawns had a multi-emotion call, nor did he know that it differed by age. The page loaded, and Oscar started skimming the article. Most of the article was the muscle structure of a prawns vocal chords and the decibels of the call, (a whopping 100 decibels, whoopee.) As Oscar was scrolling down down some words rushing up the screen caught his eye. He scrolled up and started reading a brief paragraph,

_The Non-Humans M.E-Call differs pitch by age. It has been observed that the call is higher pitched when the Non-Human is a younger age, but is only noticeably higher when the Non-human in question is between 6-10 years of age. A longer call is an aggressive one. A shorter call is a fear/help call. The aggression call is a very rare usage when the Non-Human is younger. The fear call is more likely to be heard in the young population._

Oscars eyes widened, the screech or "call" he had heard was a very high pitched and very short and definitely non-human , Leading him to believe that that the Prawn was in trouble, and very young.

Oscar felt a wave of guilt rush through him. He could of helped. Somehow... No. He could have been killed, He didn't know what even happened for gods-sake, there was a thousand different scenarios that could of happened over there, but one thought kept stuck to Oscars mind- Someone was shooting at a young prawn. Oscars stomach grumbled in protest, breaking him out of his train of thought. In a daze, Oscar bookmarked the page and shutdown the computer. He wandered down the stairs, went into the cupboard, and grabbed packet of ramen noodles.

He tossed and turned in his bed that night, he kept thinking that one thought. Oscar didn't even care about prawns that much. They were so different, I mean Everything about them was different, but they were still sentient beings, capable of thought and emotion. Most of them were probably as smart as most humans. Oscar believed that humans and prawns shared that one last shred of love, care, dignity and hope, But many would beg to Differ.


End file.
